Author reveals Potter title

The sixth book of the Harry Potter series will be called Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the British author J.K. Rowling revealed yesterday on a website dedicated to her schoolboy wizard creation.

Rowling showed visitors the title on her official website just as hoaxers tried to hoodwink fans into believing the new book would be called Harry Potter and the Pillar of Storge.

"I nearly fell off my chair giggling," the author said of speculation that the fake title had caused her to make a last-minute change.

On her website she said the Half Blood Prince title was the one "I have been using in my head for ages and ages".

"The HBP is neither Harry nor Voldemort (Potter's arch-enemy)," Rowling said. "That's all I'm saying on that subject until the book's published."

The title was confirmed by Rowling's British publisher, Bloomsbury, and her publisher in the US, Scholastic.